Deaths fell in Egypt due to improvement in healthcare services, road networks: min.

CAIRO - 8 February 2021: In her speech before the House of Representatives Monday, Minister of Planning and Development Hala al-Said declared Monday that the number of deaths declined because of improvement in healthcare services and road networks.

Deaths caused by chronic diseases dropped by 19 percent between 2019 and 2020. As for deaths because of road accidents fell by 30 percent over the same period.

The planning ministry secured technical assistance for 100 Healthy Lives Initiative, and upgraded 30 percent of vaccination bureaus located in 13 governorates out of the 5,400 bureaus dispersed across the country. That contributed to cutting the budget allocated to the vaccination system by 10 percent, and the percentage may rise after the rest of bureaus are automated by FY2023/2024.

The minister also presented the achievements of the ministry between 2018 and 2020 in the fields of legislative reforms, revisiting laws regulating the performance of public employees, and institutional development.

In that context, 6,603 governmental bodies were automated. Of those, 4,700 are health units that register births and deaths instantly. Those were connected to the Ministry of Social Solidarity represented in the Public Employees Fund, Public Enterprise and Private Sectors Employees Fund, Social Insurance Authority, Takaful and Karama Program, and Nasser Social Bank.

In addition, the ministry automated the databases of Health Insurance, Egyptian Post, Ministry of Education and Technical Education, Commercial Register, and Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

As for municipal bodies, the planning ministry automated 255 out of 307 municipal units offering 133 types of services, work of municipal authorities of eight governorates (Cairo, Ismailiyah, Port Said, Beheira, Matrouh, Menya, Sohag, and Aswan), and administrative bodies of 18 out of 22 new cities offering 180 types of services. Furthermore, an electronic gate was launched to offer 43 types of municipal services.

Speaking of the role of satellite imaging in licensing buildings, Minister al-Said explained that satellites will be used in identifying unlicensed buildings, and designating land plots that can be developed. Currently restricted to fixed units, licensing services will also be made available through mobile units equipped with tablets and printers.

Digital transformation projects were assigned to the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology in December 2019 so as the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development became only in charge of developmental planning databases.